Cubicles have their place, but it’s no longer at 357 W. Hood Ave., in Sisters.

That’s the new home of Hood Avenue Art, a fine art gallery featuring the work of more than 20 area artists.

A daylong grand opening celebration takes place starting at 10 a.m. today, with light refreshments and live music by jazz trio Uptown from 5-7 p.m. (see “If you go”).

Similar to Red Chair Gallery and Tumalo Art Co. in Bend, and Artists Gallery Sunriver, Hood Avenue Art is run by the artists whose work is featured there.

The breakdown of people involved includes nine partners, 10 members and another five consignment artists, which adds up to a lot of fine art and mediums for aficionados, including oil and watercolor paintings, mixed-media works, jewelry, book arts, pottery, woodcraft, metal works and more.

Though the official opening is today, the mood was so buoyant when GO! Magazine visited last week you’d be forgiven for thinking the fun had already started.

(The merry bunch would have happily sold something to anyone who wandered in early.)

The gallery’s name hints at what these Central Oregon artists are partly excited about: In a town widely known for its culture, theirs is the newest entry on Hood Avenue, a street now boasting some nine galleries. Right next door, sculptor Gary Cooley is also holding an opening today in celebration of his new space.

“It’s good with a bunch (of galleries),” said Hood Avenue wildlife painter Rod Frederick, a consignment artist at the gallery who believes all boats rise together. “In a place like Jackson Hole, Wyoming, the fact that there are so many galleries, you (might think), ‘Well that could be too much competition.’ But actually, it brings people in because of that. I think Sisters is becoming like that.”

The gallery started as the dream of partner Tina Brockway, who approached the other artists about the potential space at the west end of Hood Avenue. Brockway is a potter who also studies painting with one of her Hood Avenue partners, oil painter Katherine Taylor.

Fine jewelry makers Steven and Elyse Douglas, whose specialty is creating jewelry using Oregon Sunstone, the state gemstone, have a space on Bond Street in Bend. Expanding to Sisters came about thanks to Brockway, they said.

“It started out with Elyse saying there might be a new gallery” where the two might consign some of their jewelery, Steven Douglas said. “And then I started hearing conversations about contracts and leases and so on, and I went, ‘What’s going on?’ And then (I) came and met everybody. I didn’t know anybody before this, but it’s a pretty amazing group.”

Said Terrebonne-based mixed-media artist Patricia Freeman-Martin, also a partner in the gallery: “We all feel like this is our opportunity to really pursue our favorite and most-loved aspects of our work. We don’t have any bosses.”